
Rob Hughes
Freelance writer for Classic Rock since 2008, and sister title Prog since its inception in 2009. Regular contributor to Uncut magazine for over 20 years. Other clients include Word magazine, Record Collector, The Guardian, Sunday Times, The Telegraph and When Saturday Comes. Alongside Marc Riley, co-presenter of long-running A-Z Of David Bowie podcast. Also appears twice a week on Riley’s BBC6 radio show, rifling through old copies of the NME and Melody Maker in the Parallel Universe slot. Designed Aston Villa’s kit during a previous life as a sportswear designer. Geezer Butler told him he loved the all-black away strip.
Latest articles by Rob Hughes

The story of Ministry's Jesus Built My Hotrod: "Gibby threw up, spit up some gibberish and left"
By Rob Hughes published
Finished off when a drunken Gibby Haynes staggered into the studio and babbled a load of nonsense, Ministry's Jesus Built My Hotrod became a big seller and a middle finger to the label

The Power of the Darkside: the story of Opeth and Pale Communion
By Rob Hughes last updated
Dark confessionals, catastrophe, death and despair all feed into Opeth’s incredible new album Pale Communion.

Judy Teen: the quasi-calypso pop classic that gave Cockney Rebel an unlikely hit
By Rob Hughes published
"She was very funny. And very naughty too. She taught me quite a lot, to be honest. She was very rude" - Steve Harley

Tears For Fears and The Tipping Point
By Rob Hughes published
UK pop prog duo Tears For Fears discuss their love of progressive music and how it informed The Tipping Point, their first new studio album for 18 years

The Faust Tapes: just as disorientating now as it ever was
By Rob Hughes published
A 2022 reissue for the cut-price 1973 classic from Hamburg renegades Faust. Pop it certainly ain’t

Jimi Hendrix and the story of the last great free music festival
By Rob Hughes published
On Independence Day 1970, Jimi Hendrix played one of the greatest shows of his career, at the Atlanta International Pop Festival. It was also the end of an era

The Utopia Strong - International Treasure: "a triumph of foraging spontaneity"
By Rob Hughes published
Not yet ratedSnooker star Steve Davis and Knifeworld's Kavus Torabi's very interesting second album as The Utopia Strong

Apocalypse and orgasm: The crazy story of Aphrodite’s Child 666, Vangelis's cult masterpiece
By Rob Hughes last updated
Before he became a soundtrack king, Vangelis made this cult classic that began as a celebration of late-60s freedom and ended with Salvador Dalí threatening to bomb cathedrals with hippos

Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen: I’m not as pretty as Lemmy or Sting
By Rob Hughes published
With Cheap Trick inching towards their half-century, band guitarist and songwriter Rick Nielsen toasts the past, present and future in his own inimitable style

The Steve Marriott albums you should definitely own
By Rob Hughes published
One of the great British singers and frontmen, Steve Marriott's catalogue with the Small Faces, Humble Pie and beyond is littered with classics

Rosalie Cunningham: The Soundtrack Of My Life
By Rob Hughes published
Singer-songwriter Rosalie Cunningham picks her records, artists and gigs of lasting significance, and reveals why Stackridge might be better than Genesis

How Rumours swept Fleetwood Mac to the peak of their success
By Rob Hughes last updated
With a new line-up and a new commercial sound, Fleetwood Mac hit new heights of success, while relationships within the band hit new lows thanks to drink, drugs, fights and affairs

Still stoking rock‘n’roll’s golden fire, Jon Spencer has rediscovered his mojo
By Rob Hughes published
Evergreen American garage rocker Jon Spencer hits the spot on Spencer Gets It Lit

The story of Hush, the song that blasted Deep Purple into the US charts and beyond
By Rob Hughes published
It’s still a staple of Deep Purple’s live sets, but the uber-catchy Hush was first a hit for American country-soul singer Billy Joe Royal

The Mark Lanegan albums you should definitely own
By Rob Hughes last updated
Mark Lanegan's best albums marked him out as one of rock’s great voices. Here are the very best, from the Screaming Trees to Queens Of The Stone Age and beyond, via an extraordinary solo career

Houndmouth: gravitating towards the gloom
By Rob Hughes published
For lovers of bluesy roots rock, Houndmouth's fourth album Good For You could well be what the title says

The War On Drugs: fatherhood, Krautrock, and chats with Mick Jagger
By Rob Hughes published
With a perfectionist approach and drawing on classic 70s rock for inspiration, The War On Drugs is working out fine

With decades of chaos behind him, Ministry's Al Jourgensen is making progress
By Rob Hughes published
Ministry’s Al Jourgensen has lost none of his fury at the world – and his Moral Hygiene album is a demand for us all to do better

John Lennon's 10 best political songs
By Rob Hughes published
John Lennon was always the radical one in The Beatles, but it wasn’t until the band broke up that his politics exploded. These are his 10 greatest rebel songs

Bernie Marsden: the soundtrack of my life
By Rob Hughes published
Well-travelled guitarist Bernie Marsden picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance, but remains secretive about the worst record he ever made

The story of Them Crooked Vultures, the blind date supergroup
By Rob Hughes last updated
Most 40th birthday parties end with a sore head, regrettable dancing and uneaten cake. Dave Grohl's bash finished up with him, John Paul Jones and Josh Homme forming a supergroup

My Morning Jacket: "You can’t love anybody else until you love yourself"
By Rob Hughes published
Back after burn-out and health issues, My Morning Jacket's first album in six years extols love, tolerance and compassion.

Steven Van Zandt: the soundtrack of my life
By Rob Hughes published
Guitarist, songwriter and producer Steven Van Zandt picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance, and names the greatest female singer of all time

10 great bands whose debut albums weren't actually that great
By Fraser Lewry, Dom Lawson, Malcolm Dome, Jon Hotten, Sleazegrinder, Stephen Hill, Rob Hughes, Dave Ling, Alec Chillingworth published
Everybody's got to start somewhere, and some of our very best bands started slowly. Here's 10 great bands whose debut albums weren't actually great
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